


Celebrations Past

by zarabithia



Category: Captain America (Comics)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Which turned out not to be character death later, but steve doesn't know that yet, canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 18:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1754631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>  For Steve, the meaning of birthday celebrations had changed over the years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Celebrations Past

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BradyGirl_12](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BradyGirl_12/gifts).



> Although Bucky entered the war at 16, he did not stay 16 for the entire war. The relationship Steve had with him may or may not be underage. If you have age related triggers, know that I did not assign anyone ages during this fic.

Birthdays had never been extravagant affairs for Steve Rogers.  As a child, he remembered small frosted cakes, vanilla on the outside and in, prepared by his mother.  The cakes had gotten smaller and more sparsely iced as times had gotten even harder, and there were no cakes at all in the years after his mother passed.  

The war hadn't brought extravagance either, or at least not the kind of extravagance Steve would have participated in.  Private Rogers had certainly endured his fellow soldiers' idea of a good time during the years that the war permitted. But the rousing trips to local pubs and excessive alcohol consumption hadn't been a true celebration. No, that had come later, when everyone else had been tucked safely in their bunks and all that remained were the interactions between Cap and Bucky. The private, stolen moments of affection shared between them was what Steve would remember when he thought of the celebrations that had taken place during his war years.

Decades later, standing in a room crowded with Avengers ready to celebrate his birthday, Steve was a little overwhelmed, both by the crowdedness and by the pile of presents his friends had brought. He'd certainly participated in celebrating _their_ birthdays, but having all of them fussing over him was a different matter all together.  Taking a bite into his cake, Steve thought that the icing was a little too sweet, a little too perfectly applied, and a little too thick, and he couldn't help but compare it to those smaller cakes of his youth, something he'd never done during his friends' birthday parties. Still, he appreciated the gesture, and part of him knew that this group of people would likely become his new family, bound together by the same kind of common goal that had brought together the Invaders.

Steve looked forward to that day, and future celebrations like this one. But despite his pleasure, the presence of the partner Steve had lost was more sorely missed during the day of Steve's birthday celebration than ever before.  The longing only grew as he laid down to sleep on the night of his birthday.  The empty pillow next to him was a stark reminder that despite all the friends he had gained, the ache of the one he'd lost would never subside.

As he drifted off to sleep, the memories of celebrations between himself and Bucky gave way to pleasant, if all too brief, dreams that served as the most bittersweet of all presents Steve had received for his birthday.


End file.
